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Tribalism.<BR>> <BR>> A central feature of tribalism is the us/them dichotomy. "Us"<BR>> truthful and good, "them" untruthful and evil.<BR>
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Edward Said said in his book <EM>Orientalism</EM> that the battle of the times is not East vs. West but fundamentalism against modernity. Margaret Lawarence (from my own country) wrote in her essay <EM>Tribalism: Us and Them</EM> that the battle consists of tribalism vs. globalism, and that tribalism is the blight in the centre of the human heart. <BR><BR><BR>
<DIV align=center><B><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt" size=4><FONT color=#ff0000 face="Comic Sans MS"><SPAN id=btAsinTitle>Per Ardua Ad Astra</SPAN></FONT></FONT></B></DIV>
<DIV align=center><B><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt" size=4><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><SPAN></SPAN></FONT><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt" size=3>For more info on author </FONT><FONT color=#ff0000>Darren Greer</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT></FONT></FONT></B><B><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt"><FONT size=3 face="Comic Sans MS">visit </FONT></FONT></B></DIV>
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<BR>> Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2010 14:27:53 -0700<BR>> From: jrd1415@gmail.com<BR>> To: extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org<BR>> Subject: Re: [ExI] extropy-chat Digest, Vol 82, Issue 15<BR>> <BR>> On Sat, Jul 10, 2010 at 7:03 AM, Ben Zaiboc <bbenzai@yahoo.com> wrote:<BR>> <BR>> > The thing that shocks and depresses me is not the ignorance - we know about that - but the hostility. Why do so many people have the attitude "you think differently to me, therefore you are my enemy ...<BR>> <BR>> Tribalism.<BR>> <BR>> A central feature of tribalism is the us/them dichotomy. "Us"<BR>> truthful and good, "them" untruthful and evil. The human genes of<BR>> tribe A compete with the human genes of tribe B. How does one tribe<BR>> distinguish itself from an "other"?<BR>> <BR>> Tribe A has an identity meme set, composed of identity markers such as<BR>> culture, belief system, and narrative. Whenever one tribal human<BR>> (which is to say any and all humans) encounters an "other" (as in "an<BR>> other tribe") human, the difference in identity markers will provoke<BR>> suspicion, caution, and defensiveness. When the "other" speaks,<BR>> memetic conflicts provoke cognitive dissonance. This mental "pain"<BR>> signals a challenge, ie an "attack" by a rival meme set. Naturally --<BR>> here, literally, as in evolved over billions of generations in a<BR>> pre-cognitive state of nature -- there will follow an impulse to<BR>> strike back, to defend one's own meme set.<BR>> <BR>> That's where the hostility comes from. A foreign meme set -- cryonics<BR>> and its new-paradigm attack on death -- is just too much of an assault<BR>> on all the stabilizing and reassuring verities of the old-paradigm<BR>> meme set.<BR>> <BR>> The instinct for tribalism is inbuilt and exceedingly powerful. I see<BR>> it as the explanation for examples of astonishingly nonsensical group<BR>> think, ie trutherism (on the left) and birtherism (on the right).<BR>> <BR>> That's my take on it. YMMV.<BR>> <BR>> Best, Jeff Davis<BR>> <BR>> "The whole problem with the world is that fools<BR>> and fanatics are always so certain of themselves,<BR>> and wiser people so full of doubts."<BR>> Bertrand Russell<BR>> <BR>> _______________________________________________<BR>> extropy-chat mailing list<BR>> extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org<BR>> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat<BR>
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